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GUIDE POSTS 

TO 


LIFE WORK 


Talks with Young People 

on 

Choosing Vocations 


By / 

Wallace B. Fleming 


The Methodist Book Concern 
New York Cincinnati 



Copyright, 1924, by 
Wallace B. Fleming 


All rights reserved, including that of translation 
into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian. 


t 


Printed in the United States of America 


©C1A793C69 


2 

JUIU 7 « 


"He I 


To the Epworth League Hosts, who 

THROUGH THEIR SUMMER INSTITUTES ARE 
RAISING UP A WORTHY CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP 
FOR THE FUTURE, THIS SERIES OF STUDIES IS 
DEDICATED BECAUSE IT HAS GROWN OUT OF 
INSPIRING FELLOWSHIP WITH THEM. 




CONTENTS 

Page 

Preface . 5 

I. Motives in Vocational Choice. 7 

II. Life’s Most Important 

Occupation for You.17 

III. How May I Know God’s Plan ?. .33 

IV. Decision and Verification.44 

V. The Next Steps After Life 

Work Decisions.50 

VI. Working Toward Your Life 

Work .59 

VII. If Disappointments Come. 64 

VIII. Vocations and Avocations. 71 

IX. Fitting Into God’s World 

Plans .78 


4 










PREFACE 


Little Book, you are to go forth to talk 
with young people about their life work. Do 
not mind it if older folks pay slight attention 
to you; your mission is to young men and 
young women. It may be that you can help 
some of them to find themselves. 

You will whisper to them that there is a 
providential care that extends to the details of 
their lives; that the “steps of a good man are 
ordered of the Lord”; that, as to life work, 
God has his first choice for every one of them, 
and you will try to help them find that choice. 

You are such a little book and there are so 
many big questions they will ask you that you 
cannot answer. But do not be discouraged; if 
you were bigger, they would not read you at 
all, for there are many things claiming their 
attention. Small as you are, some will not 
have the patience to hear your whole story. 

You know that there are great numbers of 
splendid young folk who need life work guid¬ 
ance, and that the problem of finding their 
proper places in this fast-moving new age is 
difficult for them. Some day they will want 
to say “Father, I have finished the work that 
thou gavest me to do.” Can you help them to 
find that work? 


5 


Little friend, when I think of the greatness 
of the task you are to attempt, misgivings 
mingle with my hopes for you. But you must 
make the adventure. Help the young people 
if you can. 

Wallace B. Fleming. 

Baker University, 

Baldwin, Kansas. 


6 


Chapter I 

MOTIVES IN VOCATIONAL CHOICE 

An essential in finding the right vocation is 
that one be impelled by right motives. Low 
motives will not lead to high careers of use¬ 
fulness. Choices made without consideration 
of the motives back of them are not intelligent 
choices. A decision as to life work ought to 
be preceded by a careful consideration of the 
motives that enter into such decisions. 

Some seem to allow the matter to settle 
itself without making any definite decision re¬ 
garding it. One man became a grocer, not 
because he was especially fitted for that kind 
of work, or because there was special need for 
grocers in his community, or because he be¬ 
lieved that he could serve his fellow men best 
in such work. He may never have given se¬ 
rious thought to the question as to what voca¬ 
tion he ought to follow. He is a grocer merely 
because the first job he got after leaving 
school was in a grocery store. 

Another man is a carpenter without having 
planned to become a carpenter at all. In fact, 
he may never have tried to determine what he 
ought to become. He did a little work for a 
certain boss carpenter and liked him, and so 
he kept on at the work. And the years passed 
7 


8 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


and now he is a carpenter. It may be that 
he is only a second-rate carpenter, when he 
could have been a first-rate banker or physi¬ 
cian or merchant. He did not try to determine 
what work he could do best or what was most 
needed. He merely drifted into his life work. 
Often young people are too much influenced 
by the decisions of their fellows. In a certain 
high-school class ten of the twelve young men 
who graduated decided to take up engineer¬ 
ing. How could ten out of twelve come to 
the same choice as to life work? It is prob¬ 
able that one or two strong characters in the 
class decided for themselves and that the 
others simply followed. 

There are many who take the plan of fol¬ 
lowing the life work of their fathers. There 
is something to be said for this plan. If a 
father has had great success, there may 
rightfully be an assumption that a fitness for 
such work will be inherited by his sons. At 
least they will be in a position to gather w r is- 
dom out of his experiences. It is said that 
among the ancient Egyptians the son was re¬ 
quired to learn the trade of his father, and 
that by this plan artisans of great skill were 
developed. 

The trouble wdth this plan is that it does 
not leave room for Christian initiative; it does 
not take into account the variety of abilities 
with which God endows men. It may be real 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


9 


ground for consideration in making a life-plan 
but it alone is ground entirely too small to 
serve as a base for so large a decision. 

Among others of ancient time the father 
chose an occupation for his son. At the time 
of Christ every Jewish parent was required to 
teach his son some useful trade. Jesus was a 
carpenter. Paul was a tent-maker. And al¬ 
though the son could change his occupation, 
he usually did not do so. 

In modern times this method has been tried. 
But in these days of universal education and 
startlingly rapid change—in these days of 
democracy and of individual responsibility— 
the present cannot be ruled by the past. The 
generation coming in cannot accept choices 
for it made by the generation passing out. 
In this important matter of life work each 
must work out his own salvation. 

Some may decide their life work on the 
basis of what is easy for them. A certain 
kind of work looks like a “snap.” It will re¬ 
quire the minimum of real toil, and the toil it 
does require will be pleasurable. 

Now, the fact that a particular line of work 
is agreeable and easy of accomplishment may 
indicate special abilities for just such work. 
Men can usually accomplish most when their 
work is congenial. These facts are worthy of 
consideration. But the young man who 
chooses a certain life work because it seems 


10 


CfUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


to him to offer a path of roses that have no 
thorns is always doomed to disappointment 
and to a wasted life. 

In considering so great a matter young 
people sometimes get a totally wrong result 
because they give secondary considerations a 
deciding prominence. Decisions usually grow 
out of the combination of several motives. 
Some motives of which men are unconscious 
affect their decisions and their actions. It is 
not enough that decisions be based on proper 
motives; the motives impelling to decision 
ought to be permitted to exert an influence 
proportioned to their relative importance. 

Man}^ young people determine their life 
work on the basis of prospective financial re¬ 
turns. Where can most money be made? Will 
this vocation lead to prosperity and wealth? 
When it is remembered what money can do, 
its protection to loved ones, the conveniences 
and comforts it supplies, how it transmutes 
life into a thousand forms of helpfulness, en¬ 
abling one man to exchange the toil by which 
he has earned it into missionary work in som6 
far-off land, enabling another to transmute his 
industry into perpetual enrichment for young 
life by gifts to education, enabling another to 
transform his toil into deeds of mercy by his 
gifts to charities—when the magic of money 
is remembered, it will readily be granted that 
it is entirely proper for a young person to 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


11 


consider the financial returns when weighing 
the matter of life work. And yet this motive 
ought not to be permitted to become a ruling 
motive. It is not of first importance. Some 
who have blessed the world most have had 
little of its wealth. 

Occasionally life Work decisions rest upon an 
eagerness for human praise. A certain voca¬ 
tion is chosen because of the honors to which 
it may lead. 

Eagerness for commendation is natural, and 
it is proper if properly directed. When mis¬ 
directed or given too great a place, it leads 
men to seek human praise at almost any price. 
When kept in its proper place, it leads men 
to desire to be worthy of praise more than to 
receive praise, and to merit good will moie 
than to secure it. 

As a servant to higher motives, the craving 
for honor is a great help; but as a mastei 
motive it is ruinous. 

The same may be said of a craving for 
power. If power be desired for noble ends, 
the struggle for power ennobles the man and 
makes his life a blessing whether he attains the 
kind of power desired or not. But eagerness 
for power in order that one may gratify his 
own ambition or impose his own will upon 
others is a motive that is wholly unworthy. 

In forming a life work decision we may 
justly count this as another motive that is a 


12 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


gqpd servant of higher motives but a bad 
master. 

The Lord of Life has shown that life’s 
supreme motive is service. When the mother 
of James and John desired that her sons 
might have highest places of honor, and the 
other disciples became indignant, Jesus said, 
“Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord 
it over them, and their great ones exercise 
authority over them. Not so shall it be among 
you: but whosoever would become great among 
you shall be your minister: and whosoever 
would be first among you shall be your serv¬ 
ant: even as the Son of man came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give 
his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20. 
25-28). 

The great questions for every man are: 
“How can I do the most good in the world? 
How can I render the largest service? How 
can I make my life count to the utmost in the 
things that are noble?” He whose decision 
as to life work is dominated by such considera¬ 
tions has accepted Christ’s view of human re^ 
sponsibility and is on the way to learn God’s 
will for his life. 

Has God a plan for each life? The ques¬ 
tion as to whether God has a plan for each 
life has been much debated. There would 
seem to be indications that he has a plan at 
least for some lives. We read, “The steps of 


OUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


13 


a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Psalm 
37.23). The Saviour’s statement of the all- 
inclusive care of the heavenly Father, without 
whom not even a sparrow falls to the ground, 
would seem to warrant the belief that he is so 
deeply concerned as to be willing to direct. 
Many passages of the Holy Writ confirm this 
view. 

Very many good men believe that they see 
in their own lives evidences of providential 
guidance. The great forward movements of 
the kingdom of God have been led by men 
who were inspired with the belief that they 
were under divine leadership. 

The hymns and prayers of Christendom are 
full of trust in providential care. It is difficult 
to see how anyone can believe in God as re¬ 
vealed by Christ and yet think of him as 
unconcerned about that which concerns his 
children so much. 

Indeed, much of life rests in this belief. 
God says, “This is the way, walk ye in it” 
(Isaiah 30.21) ; and he says it as truly to-day 
as in the days of old. We read that Abram 
went forth not knowing whither he was go¬ 
ing, but conscious of the leadership of God, 
and there are many who believe that experience 
to be typical. They believe that they them¬ 
selves just as really have been providentially 
led forth by new and unknown ways. 


U GU1DEP0STS TO LIFE WORK 

Can man make God take second choice? If 
God has a plan for each life, and one chooses 
to follow some other path, does God readjust 
his plans? 

In Jeremiah 18.1 to 6, it is written: “The 
word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord 
saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s 
house, and there I will cause thee to hear my 
words. Then I went down to the potter’s 
house, and, behold, he wrought his work on the 
wheels. And when the vessel that he made of 
the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, 
he made it again another vessel, as seemed 
good to the potter to make it. Then the word 
of the Lord came to me saying, O, house of 
Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? 
saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay in the 
potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house 
of Israel.” 

God is just as solicitous for people to-day. 
He always does the best for us that we will 
let him do. 

In an Eastern city a pastor called at the 
home of an official member. In the course of 
their conversation the church officer said: “I 
want to tell you the tragedy of my own life. 
When I was a young man I saw clearly what 
God wanted me to do, but I put off preparation 
for the task from time to time until I finally 
awoke to the fact that it was too late, and 
that I could never do the work to which God 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


15 


had called me. He has forgiven me, and men 
say that I am successful as a business man, 
and that my life is useful; but to me there is 
the great and constant regret that I have com¬ 
pelled God to take second choice in my life. I 
did not let him have first choice.” 

It is of the utmost importance that a per¬ 
son find the work that the Father has given 
him to do. Many a man who is free from the 
danger of yielding to that which is obviously 
evil is still in danger of the tragedy of follow¬ 
ing the second best. One of our poets has 
said: 

“God has his best things for the few 
Who dare to stand the test; 

He has his second best for those 
Who will not have his best.”* 

Can one find God's plan? It is clear that 
God does not give to us detailed outlines of 
what our lives are to be. He does not supply 
any blue prints which, when once accepted, 
may be followed without further exercise of 
thought. Such a method of dealing would 
take away from life its thousand joyous sur¬ 
prises. We must always walk by faith and 
not by sight. Doubtless this is best. 

It is true that God’s call to some men seems 
to have been a necessity laid upon them. Paul 
said, “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” 

♦Quoted from Poems with Power to Strengthen the 
Soul— Mudge; published by the Methodist Book 
Concern. 


16 


GU1DEP0STS TO LIFE WORK 


His experience on the Damascus road was cer¬ 
tainly unusual. No one would argue it as 
God’s ordinary way of making his purpose 
known. 

It is just as certain that God does not 
usually call men to any kind of life work by 
strange ecstatic experiences in which they are 
relieved of the necessity for sober, earnest 
thought. That was not his method even in the 
experiences of Paul. Our choices would not be 
our own if such were God’s plan. So then it 
is necessary for us to use all the mental abil¬ 
ity that God has given us. We must seek 
every known help. Sound sense is not to be 
replaced by anything else. Our decisions will 
have to be our own. 

Nevertheless, this book is written in the 
confidence that God has a plan for each life, 
and that there is a way to find it. 


Chapter II 


LIFE’S MOST IMPORTANT 
OCCUPATION FOR YOU 

“Whatsoever he saith unto you , do it” 
(John 2.5). “Am I willing to seek God’s 
plan for my life with the fixed determination 
to do his will whatever it may be?” Unless 
you are willing to ask yourself this question 
and settle it definitely, it is quite useless to 
seek God’s plan at all. You may choose for 
yourself; but you can never have the great 
joy of finding God’s purpose and choosing it. 

Here as elsewhere in spiritual things, knowl¬ 
edge comes through a spirit of obedience. 
Jesus said, “If any man will do his will, he 
shall know of the doctrine” (John 7.17). 
Disobedience is a source of spiritual blindness. 
The spirit of obedience is essential in seeking 
God’s plan. 

The spirit of obedience is also essential for 
the growth and for the increasing joy that 
God means life should have. “The path of 
the just is as the shining light, that shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov¬ 
erbs 4.18). Life as God intends it is a path 
of increasing joy and development and useful- 
17 


18 


GUIDE POSTS TO LIFE WORK 


ness; but the gateway to that path is obedi¬ 
ence. 

“He that doeth the will of heaven 

To him shall knowledge and sight be given.” 

Secular tasks may he sacred. Young peo¬ 
ple sometimes are influenced by the old dis¬ 
tinctions of secular and sacred callings. Some 
think of God as interested in the life work of 
only those whom he calls for what people 
sometimes speak of as sacred callings. Such 
a view narrows the range of honorable and 
useful pursuits open to consideration when 
life investment is being considered. Such a 
view does injustice to many who are faith¬ 
fully serving God in ministering to man’s ma¬ 
terial needs. 

To every man his work. God needs a great 
variety of workers in the world. His children 
must be fed. They must be clothed and housed 
and protected and developed and cared for in 
a thousand ways. He needs workers for all of 
these things. Every work that adds to the 
welfare and happiness of men must be re¬ 
garded by the heavenly Father as sacred work. 

It must not be supposed that all young 
people who definitely seek the will of God for 
their life work will be led into those lines of 
work which are sometimes spoken of as “sacred 
callings.” Men are learning that God calls 
some to be farmers and others to be bankers 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


19 


and others to be carpenters, and so forth, and 
that the man who has found the work that 
God would have him do has found a sacred 
work. 

Any life work is sacred if it is God’s will 
for the man engaged in it. 

“No service in itself is small; 

None great though earth it fill. 

But that is small that seeks its own; 

That great that seeks God’s will.”* 

The man who is called of God to be a car¬ 
penter should look upon his work as sacred. 
He should put his best into his work. He is 
erecting shelter for God’s children. He be¬ 
longs to the craft of the Carpenter of Naz¬ 
areth. 

The farmer who ought to be a farmer is 
God’s farmer. He co-operates with God in 
producing the food for the world. Let him 
hold his head up and regard his calling as 
a holy calling, for so it is. 

A man is called of God to be a doctor. Hay 
after day he passes among the people defend¬ 
ing them from disease, preventing its spread, 
or promoting health so vigorous as to be able 
to resist it. At the home of some child that is 
desperately ill the good doctor spends the long 
hours of the night fighting with death for the 
possession of the little life. Death reaches 

♦Quoted from Poems with Power to Strengthen the 
Soul —Mudge; published by the Methodist Book 
Concern. 


20 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


out to seize the child; the doctor smites death 
again and again with the sword of his skill. 
At length death retreats, the fever breaks, 
the child is safe. Is not the work of such a 
doctor a sacred calling? 

God needs shoemakers; and when he calls 
a man to be a shoemaker the man ought to 
put character into his toil. He ought to say: 
“Mine is a sacred work; I protect people’s 
health. The little girl whose shoes I am mend' 
ing must not get wet feet and become ill be¬ 
cause of carelessness on my part. Mine is a 
sacred work, for God needs it done for his 
children. It is part of his plan.” 

God needs garbage men. Some day people 
will become wise enough to see that this is 
true. The man who is led of God to such toil 
should know that his work is sacred. He is 
preventing pestilence in our cities. Without 
his work life in our cities and towns would be 
almost impossible. Is it not a sacred work to 
save health and life? 

But it ought to be kept in mind that God 
does not choose sledge-hammers for driving 
carpet tacks. If your abilities are suited only 
to extremely modest tasks, God will assign 
you to such tasks and you will have a right to 
consider your work sacred and to follow it 
with a singing heart. But if you have abil¬ 
ities that are suited to larger and more difficult 
tasks, God will not call you to the simpler 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


21 


work. It cannot be your work. You will 
remember that God gave to Abraham Lincoln 
abilities for world statesmanship, and that 
Lincoln was a failure as a country storekeeper. 

In recent times commercial expansion has 
been emphasizing the world’s need of Christian 
leadership in finance and industry. The growth 
of vast manufacturing enterprises has caused 
a concentration of power in the hands of a 
limited number of leaders and the welfare of 
the masses depends upon them in large 
measure. 

The development of natural resources and 
the growth of manufacturing has been accom¬ 
panied by a marvelous expansion of trade. 
Domestic commerce now moves in volumes un¬ 
heard of until recent times. Foreign com¬ 
merce is increasing with equally astonishing 
growth. 

These and other causes are resulting in de¬ 
velopments in finance of vast and ever-increas¬ 
ing proportions. The kings of the modern 
world do not sit on tinseled thrones as in the 
days of old; they sit behind mahogany desks 
in vast office buildings and direct the affairs 
of the kingdoms of industry and commerce 
and finance. 

If ever these kingdoms become the king¬ 
doms of our Lord and his Christ, it will be 
because a leadership has arisen that is wise 
enough to think in terms of the world’s wel- 


22 


GUIDEP08TS TO LIFE WORK 


fare, and good enough to exemplify the Christ 
spirit. And if God calls men to big business 
leadership, and they face their tasks in the 
Christ spirit, who will say that theirs is not a 
sacred calling? 

We may be sure that the work God wants 
us to do will mature and develop us. It will 
count in our making for eternity. And he 
knows where our life can best mature; we do 
not. If we had not seen the thing work out, 
who would have chosen the muck and the slime 
as the best place for the growing of beautiful 
white pond lilies? 

“But my work is irksome and grinding,” 
one says. “How does this contribute to the 
perfecting of my life?” It may be that we 
cannot know; but the Father knows. 

Hear the complaint of the diamond on the 
wheels of the jewel-cutter. “This process 
cuts and grinds and hurts. It is wearing me 
away. It is so painful. Why could I not 
be left alone? Why should I be put upon the 
wheels? What has the jewel-cutter against 
me that he should subject me to all this?” Be 
still, little diamond ; be submissive to keenest 
discipline, even to the grinding of the wheels. 
The jewel-cutter is preparing you for a place 
in the diadem of a king. 

You must not think of labor as a curse. 
Sorrow and toil were God’s earliest provision 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


23 


for the spiritual recovery and development of 
man. 

Again, if you will let Christ direct you in 
your life work, your calling will be sacred be¬ 
cause you will have Christ’s presence with 
you in it. 

Some years ago Professors Grenfell and 
Hunt unearthed important ancient papyri at 
Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Among these ancient 
fragments there was one of priceless value. It 
contained a number of lost sayings of Jesus. 
One of these sayings contains the thought 
now before us. It reads, 44 Jesus saith, Lift 
the stone and thou shalt find me; cleave the 
wood and there am I.” The thought is that 
wherever men are engaged in honest toil$ 
Christ is not far away. 

Henry Van Dyke has taken this passage as 
a basis for his charming little book entitled 
The Toiling of Felix. It traces the recovery 
of a soul by the discipline of toil. With the 
permission of the author we quote the sum¬ 
ming up of its message. 


“The Gospel of Labor”* 

‘But I think the King of that country comes out 
from his tireless host; . . , 

And walks in this world of the weary, as if he loved 
it the most; 

For here in the dusty confusion, with eyes that 
are heavy and dim. 

He meets again the laboring men who are looking 
and longing for him. 

Sons. 


♦Copyrighted by Charles Scribner 


24 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


“He cancels the curse of Eden, and brings them a 
blessing instead; 

Blessed are they that labor, for Jesus partakes of 
their bread. 

He puts his hand to their burdens, he enters their 
homes at night; 

Who does his best shall have as a guest the Master 
of life and of light. 

“And courage will come with his presence, and 
patience return at his touch, 

And manifold sins be forgiven to those who love 
him much; 

And the cries of envy and anger will change to 
the songs of cheer, 

For the toiling age will forget its rage when the 
Prince of Peace draws near. 

“This is the gospel of labor—ring it ye bells of the 
kirk— 

The Lord of Love came down from above, to live 
with the men who work. 

This is the rose that he planted, here in the thorn- 
cursed soil— 

Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing 
of earth is toil.” 

—Henry Van Dyke. 

We have seen that so-called secular voca¬ 
tions have their glory, and that one should 
hold sacred the work to which God assigns 
him whatever others may think of that work. 
It will be noted that the so-called secular voca¬ 
tions afford opportunity to minister mainly to 
physical needs. Food, clothing, shelter, trans¬ 
portation, medical care—these and a thousand 
other ministries to human need are first of all 
ministries to man’s physical need. 


GUIDEP0ST8 TO LIFE WORK 


25 


But there is a peculiar glory in those voca¬ 
tions that minister not to men’s bodies but to 
their souls. Such vocations serve the immortal 
in man. They bring men into conscious fel¬ 
lowship with God. They call forth the noblest 
and highest powers for those who follow them 
and directly affect the characters and destinies 
of men. 

The call to such service does not always 
come in the same way. God speaks “in divers 
maimers” to those whom he calls. 

Isaiah volunteered. He was in the temple 
worshiping when he got a new vision of God’s 
greatness and glory. He got a conception of 
God’s holiness as such that the seraphim would 
veil their faces before him as they cried, 
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the 
whole earth is full of his glory.” 

In the presence of the holy God he saw his 
own spiritual need and that of his people. And 
then he realized that God could care for 
human sin and need, and God could cleanse 
away his sin. Then he heard the voice of the 
Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who 
will go for us?” And Isaiah answered, “Here 
am I; send me.” 

Saint Paul was almost thrust into the serv¬ 
ice. On the Damascus road as he meditated 
truth broke on him in a startling vision. He 
beheld the crucified Jesus as the Lord of all. 
He awoke to a personal responsibility to 


26 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


Christ, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” 
“Arise and go into Damascus; and there it 
shall be told thee of all things which are ap¬ 
pointed for thee to do.” 

With most men the call comes in a convic¬ 
tion to duty. One man considers how his life 
can accomplish most good, and there comes to 
him a persuasion that he ought to devote him¬ 
self to the ministry; another meditates on the 
paths of spiritual darkness that covers the 
heathen nations. He is moved by the spirit of 
the heroic Christ, and feels that it is his duty 
to go as a missionary; and thus God has called 
him. 

We cannot say that God never calls man 
by strange, ecstatic experiences in which they 
are directly impressed by his will. God speaks 
to men in many ways. But we can say that 
the call of God usually comes to men in an 
assurance of duty to be done. God expects 
men to exercise all of their mental abilities in 
determining what their work should be. His 
spirit ordinarily operates through man’s men¬ 
tal processes. Nothing could be more mislead¬ 
ing or harmful than the idea that no man 
ought to enter a religious vocation unless com¬ 
pelled by God to do so. Usually men whose 
ministry bears the marks of divine approval 
have entered their sacred calling with great 
joy when they realized what God wanted them 
do. 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


27 


The call to life service usually involves a 
call to prepare for that service. If there is 
no life work more important or with greater 
issues involved, then the preparation for the 
ministry ought to be as thorough and careful 
as for any other vocation among men. 

A doctor had just performed the delicate 
operation of removing a cataract from the eye 
of a patient. A minister said, “But your re¬ 
sponsibility is so great; the slightest mistake 
and you have blinded an eye.” The doctor 
replied, “But what about your responsibility? 
May not a mistake on your part work eternal 
injury?” 

The doctor who prepares properly to-day 
must complete his four years in college and 
four years of medical study in addition. And 
yet some men would be willing to enter the 
ministry without so much as a high-school ed¬ 
ucation. 

The difficulties in the way of securing 
proper training are usually much smaller than 
they first appear. Bunyan’s Pilgrim saw lions 
in the way; but when he went forward he 
found them chained. If he had stopped where 
he was when he first saw the lions, he would 
never have known that they were chained. The 
young person who thinks he sees impassable 
difficulties in the way of an adequate prepara¬ 
tion for life work usually sees difficulties some 


28 


OUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


distance in advance. Ordinarily, if he will go 
forward, the way will open. 

Then consider the joy of such a life work, 
the satisfaction in helping to develop the 
noblest and the holiest in man. 

People are sometimes inclined to pity the 
missionaries because they leave home and 
friends and native land, and go far across the 
sea to live amid conditions of ignorance or 
superstition or filth or squalor. But who ever 
heard of a missionary who regretted that he 
had undertaken such work? They have a 
holy joy that others have not known. 

The deaconess in a slum section of an 
Eastern city lives for the foreign children and 
street waifs. She instructs them and teaches 
them, and lives her beautiful life before them. 
Men say: “Is it safe to allow this woman to 
go unattended into this section where there is 
so rough a class of people? Will not some 
harm come to her?” But those who know re¬ 
ply that the rough and uncouth characters of 
that section in their awkward efforts to ex¬ 
press their appreciation of the woman of 
Christ call her the “angel with the white jaw- 
strings,” and her face shines as the face of 
an angel when the street waifs run to meet 
her at her coming. 

Do not pity her: she has a joy never known 
to those who have not poured out their lives 


GUIDEPO&TS TO LIFE WORK 


29 


to help the helpless and to rescue the fallen 
and to bring the lost back to God. 

A preacher visited an old lady who had 
been living as a recluse. She had not left her 
home for years. The preachers had tried to 
call at other times but were not admitted. 
This time she was ill and the preacher was 
admitted. In the conversation he said: “I 
have an old book here that has some strange 
things in it. Maybe you could explain some 
of them. Here it reads, ‘Let not your heart 
be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in 
me.’ ” 

“I know,” said the old lady, “it is Jesus 
talking. I used to read that when I was a 
little girl.” 

The preacher said, “It sounds mighty good, 
for it says ‘In my Father’s house are many 
mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.’ 
It must have been great for those people. 
Wouldn’t it be good if there were only some 
way for us to get in on it?” 

She said, “It is for us. It is not like Jesus 
to have good things for only a few and nobody 
else have a chance. I know, for I remember 
of studying about him at Sunday school when 
I was a little girl sixty years ago.” 

The preacher said, “How can we get 
counted in?” 

And the queer old lady whose soul had been 
starved said, “He will count us in if we ask 


30 GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 

him. I know now. Now I remember; all we 
need to do is to pray.” 

Then the preacher prayed, and the old 
lady found the joy of knowing that she was 
counted in on the good promises of Christ. 
And when she went to God it was found that 
she had left a bequest for the Sunday school 
where as a little child she had learned of 
Jesus. 

Do you know of any holier joy than comes 
to such a preacher? Of course he gets tired 
when he sits all night at the side of some 
sick person; but think of the joy of helping 
one who is nearing the end of the journey to 
clasp the pierced hand of the Good Shepherd 
and go forth into the valley of death fearing 
no evil. It is not easy to go into the house of 
sorrow to carry comfort. And yet to enable 
those in trouble and sorrow to know that un¬ 
derneath them are the everlasting arms is 
holy joy. 

Think of the joy of proclaiming the 
glorious gospel of the Son of God and of 
seeing it grip the lives of men to transform 
them. 

In the photographer’s studio you may enter 
the dark room and watch the work. The pho¬ 
tographer takes the print from the plate and 
slips it into the developing solution. After a 
time you see it beginning to change. He dips 
it again and you see human features begin- 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


31 


ning to appear. You watch the process with 
strange joy, for now out of what was dark 
you see the face of a friend appearing ever 
plainer until it is a perfect image. 

The preacher’s work is like that. He treats 
the souls of his hearers with spiritual truth 
until that which is dark and obscure dissolves 
and the image of God grows clearer and 
clearer. Could any work bring holier joy? 

Then consider the permanence of the work. 
Men aspire to accomplish imperishable things. 
The pyramids of Egypt were probably an 
effort to defy the ravages of time. Great 
monuments and triumphal arches are erected 
that the memory of great deeds may be per¬ 
petuated. Men are not willing to pass through 
life without accomplishing some enduring 
work. But those who work in bronze or 
marble cannot conquer time. Only that which 
affects the soul reaches eternity. 

Thorwaldsen stood before a block of mar¬ 
ble, and saw in it what no other man had ever 
seen; and then he began to chip away that 
which obstructed what he had seen. At last 
with infinite care the w T ork was done; the vision 
in marble stood before him. Then he wondered 
if he had seen aright and resolved to make a 
test. His statue was carefully covered. He 
brought his little daughter into the studio and 
in her presence unveiled his work. Her eyes 
sparkled with admiration. She exclaimed, “It 


32 


GUIDEP0ST8 TO LIFE WORK 


looks so wondrously like our Saviour.” Then 
the great artist was satisfied. He had produced 
one of the world’s masterpieces. That is the 
story of Thorwaldsen’s statue of Christ. 

Happy the minister who sees the Christ 
hidden behind human imperfections and who 
is able with infinite patience and care to bring 
forth, not a stone image, but a living like¬ 
ness. He has the joy of knowing that he has 
enriched the world. He has made effective 
that for which Christ died. Then, while the 
work wrought by other men in stone or bronze 
will yield to time’s influences of destruction, 
his will have a permanence as enduring as the 
immortal souls of men. 

“He built a house. Time laid it in the dust; 

He wrote a book, its title now forgot; 

He ruled a city, but his name is not 
On any table graven or where rust 
Can gather from disuse, or marble bust. 

“He took a child from out a wretched cot; 

Who on the State dishonor might bave brought, 
And reared him in the Christian’s hope and trust. 
The boy to manhood grown became a light 
To many souls and preached to human need 
The wondrous love of the Omnipotent. 

The work has multiplied like stars at night 
When darkness deepens; every noble deed 
Lasts longer than a granite monument.”* 

—Sarah Knowles Bolton. 

♦Published by permission of Charles Knowles Bol¬ 
ton and the Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 


Chapter III 

HOW MAY I KNOW GOD’S PLAN? 

It is a safe inference that your work ought 
to afford you a reasonable fiTumcial return. 
This matter is mentioned first not because it 
is of first importance, for almost any life work 
will afford a reasonable support. In fact, the 
problem of making a living in modern times 
is no problem at all to the average young 
person who views life rightly. And yet this 
consideration is proper. It is mentioned first 
here because it is first in the thinking of so 
many people. Then by mentioning it first 
w T e get it out of the way for considering 
things more complex. 

It is safe to assume that your work in life 
should afford you an opportunity to grow. 
Nothing can be of greater importance to you 
in your personal life than this, for life’s first 
business is to develop character in the divine 
image. Toil that gives little room for the 
exercise of life’s nobler power, toil that leaves 
little room for leisure in the days and that is 
so strenuous as to leave no strength or ambi¬ 
tion to use the meager hours of leisure that 
are left—such toil surely is unsuited to the 
young person who aspires. Your life work 
33 


34 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


should call out and exercise your own best 
powers. Then you can grow. Then it will 
not be a dull grind of drudgery that kills even 
the leisure hours, but an inspiring challenge 
that fills all of life with meaning. 

Your life work should employ your best 
powers. In the country churchyard sleep 
“mute Miltons, ignoble Cromwells” and their 
like, but God never meant it so. The tragedy 
of life is that men with power to have blessed 
the world have often found no chance to em¬ 
ploy such powers but have wasted their lives 
on tasks that could have been done by ma¬ 
chines. Think what the world would have 
lost if Luther Burbank had been content to be 
nothing more than an ordinary gardener. 
What if Thomas Edison had remained a tele¬ 
graph operator, never seeking opportunity 
for the employment of the strange powers 
with which he was ^endowed! 

Viewing life either in terms of your contri¬ 
bution to human good or in terms of your own 
opportunity for growth, your life work should 
employ the highest powers given you. 

Then, of course, your life work ought to 
enable you to render the largest service to 
humanity. “The Son of man came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister” (Mark 10. 
45). And the Master’s motive is the master 
motive for us. How can we be most useful? 
How can we be most helpful? If the right 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


35 


answer can be found for this question, and 
life work is decided on that basis, it is certain 
that the other considerations will take care of 
themselves. Therefore this must be thought 
through with greatest care. 

We could answer without hesitating if we 
could know all about our abilities and re¬ 
sources, and all about our circumstances and 
the human needs about us. These are the two 
factors in the solution of the problem of find¬ 
ing our place of largest helpfulness. If one 
could be sure that he has rightly measured his 
own abilities and that he has rightly measured 
the human needs his abilities could supply, he 
would have little difficulty in deciding what 
his life work ought to be. 

God gives the poet the ability to see truths 
that are beautiful and to clothe them with 
words woven into beautiful garments of 
speech. God gives to the preacher the abil¬ 
ity to understand spiritual needs and to lead 
men to Christ and the Christian life. He gives 
to the artisan his skill. He gives to the 
farmer his insight into the secrets of things 
that grow. 

The man who understands his own abilities 
has made much progress in determining what 
God would have him be; for God’s endow¬ 
ments are for the doing of God’s will. 

A rather strange hint of one’s abilities is 
sometimes seen in childhood’s play. One the- 


36 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


ory of play is that it is a foreshadowing of 
manhood’s abilities. The boy plays soldier 
because he has in him the latent fighting pow¬ 
ers of the soldier. These powers may not find 
expression in later life, but they are there, 
and because of this fact the boy plays soldier. 

On this theory one hearing Henry Clay in 
his boyhood orating to the cows on his 
father’s farm should have known that he had 
abilities for public life. 

Years ago in a little Ohio town a ten-year- 
old boy put up his sign, “Climax Distributing 
Agency,” and tried to go into the advertising 
business. Today he is advertising manager 
for a big Eastern manufacturing concern. 
Years ago a little boy in Kansas used to preach 
to his play blocks and urge them to come 
forward to the altar. Later he preached to 
the trees and the horses. It was his play in 
childhood. Today he is one of the most 
prominent ministers in his native State. Of 
course too much must not be made of the 
possibilities of this theory. But it may fur¬ 
nish a hint as to latent abilities. 

But at best self-appraisement is difficult, A 
difficulty arises from the fact that often a 
young man’s abilities are unsuspected even by 
himself. His abilities cannot be measured un¬ 
til his possibilities are brought out. Saint 
Paul tells the young man Timothy to “stir up 
the gift that is within thee” (2 Timothy 1.6). 


OUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


3T 


Here we touch the matter of education. 
Education enables the young man to find him¬ 
self. It awakens his powers. It develops 
these powers. At the same time it gives him 
a large understanding of human needs and of 
the opportunities for service. If one’s calling 
is not clear, the uncertainty usually vanishes 
if he goes forward in his educational plans. 

Another difficulty in the way of a right ap¬ 
praisement of one’s own abilities arises from 
the fact that men are usually poor judges of 
themselves, and that fact will lead a wise 
young man to hold his own conclusions about 
himself with some uncertainty. 

It will be remembered that Moses thought 
that Aaron was better qualified to save Israel 
from the Egyptian bondage than he himself. 
When the angel of the Lord hailed Gideon as 
a mighty man of valor Gideon thought of him¬ 
self as least in his father’s house. Saint Paul 
called himself less than the least of all the 
saints, but God called him a chosen vessel and 
commissioned him for tasks of inconceivable 
greatness. But the important point here is 
merely that men are usually not good judges 
of themselves. Aid is needed in the appraise¬ 
ment of our abilities. 

Consult one or two wise and mature friends. 
Often others can measure us better than we 
can measure ourselves. Happy is the young 
man who has a wise friend or two. Perhaps it 


38 GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 

is father or the pastor or the Sunday-school 
teacher. If you have one or two friends in 
whose judgment you have confidence, lay the 
whole matter before them for their counsel. 
Of course you can’t leave the matter to their 
decision. You will have to make the decision; 
but you will surely get help on this plan. 

Consult Christ. Then there is a still more 
important step than that of seeking human 
counsel. This is one of the big questions of 
life that ought not to be answered without 
prayer. Paul’s prayer, “Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do?” still finds answer. True, the 
answer does not usually come in such startling 
fashion; but by the quickening of our minds 
we get clear vision through prayer. Even 
when we are weak he can make us strong 
where we lack he can supply. Whatever he 
wants us to do, we can do by his help. 

Then consider your circumstances . In or¬ 
der to know where one’s life will be most useful 
the human needs about us must be considered. 
That is just another way of saying that one 
must take into account the work at hand that 
God most needs to get done. 

We assume that those who are to follow the 
commonplace tasks in a commonplace way will 
not be studying a book on how to find your 
life work. The fact that you are making this 
study marks you as out of the ordinary, and 


GU1DEP0STS TO LIFE WORK 


39 


suggests that perhaps you can qualify for 
leadership. 

Long ago Christ was moved with compas¬ 
sion when he beheld the multitudes because 
they were as sheep without a shepherd. His 
heart was touched, not because they were so 
wicked nor because they were so foolish. It 
was not that they were as sheep, but that they 
were as sheep not having a shepherd. It was 
the lack of proper leadership that moved his 
heart. 

This is not strange. Every movement for 
human good has had to wait till it could find 
expression in worthy leadership before it could 
become effective. Martin Luther is the expla¬ 
nation of the rise of Protestantism. The 
evangelical revival that gave Methodism to 
the world is explained when you understand 
John Wesley. Noble institutions are usually 
the lengthened shadows of their founders. 
They mark the advances that became possible 
when worthy leadership arose. 

When early Christianity faced the system 
of Greek civilization restatements became im¬ 
perative. Here was a great body of truth 
that had developed in Greek philosophy. Here 
were established habits of thinking. On the 
other hand, the heralds of thei new faith 
brought new truths of infinite value. But the 
two bodies of truth did not seem to fit to¬ 
gether. Saint Paul saw the necessity for 


40 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


readjustments in the current interpretation of 
Christianity. He saw that the nonessentials 
of Mosaic ceremonialism would have to be 
abandoned. But there were others who feared 
that, if the old Hebrew ceremonials of the Old 
Testament were to be abandoned, it would be 
hard to tell where to stop. If people do not 
need to keep the feasts and fasts and other 
ceremonies ordered in Old Testament, they 
may not keep the Ten Commandments. Who 
is to say what is essential and what nonessen¬ 
tial? These were real problems. But finally 
there was a harmonizing of the truths of Chris¬ 
tianity and the truth of Greek philosophy, and 
Christianity went forward in world-conquest. 

In the days of the Renaissance new learn¬ 
ing opened a new universe to the knowledge 
of man. Copernicus and Galileo discovered 
that the earth was a sphere and revolved 
around the sun. A whole group of other im¬ 
portant discoveries marked the period. It was 
the era of bold mariners like Columbus, who 
brought new continents into the range of 
human knowledge. The newly invented print¬ 
ing press made the new knowledge almost uni¬ 
versal. 

But the new knowledge did not seem to fit 
the ancient faith. Didn’t the Bible say that 
the sun went around the earth? At any rate 
it spoke of the four corners of the earth, 
and so there were many who were troubled. It 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


41 


was clear that if these new teachings were 
true, Christianity could not progress far in 
opposition to truth. Therefore these men must 
be wrong, and so an effort was made to have 
them recant. Everybod}^ now knows that 
that effort is a dark page in the history of the 
Christian Church. 

Then arose a few leaders who were able to 
distinguish between the essential in Christian¬ 
ity and the incidental. The real truths of re¬ 
ligion and of the new learning were brought 
into alliance. Christianity was not destroyed 
by the new truth but profited by it very 
greatly. The Protestant Reformation was 
born, and so was the counter reformation in 
the Roman Catholic Church. This new ad¬ 
justment opened the way for Christianity’s 
conquests in the modern world. 

Consider the scientific age. Now we have 
come to a new age of scientific thought. As¬ 
tronomy with modern appliances has brought 
to human knowledge a universe vast beyond 
the power of all human imagination to grasp. 
Modern geology and anthropology and chem¬ 
istry and biology and psychology have revo¬ 
lutionized earlier thought. 

There are plenty of people who tell us that 
the new learning and the ancient faiths are 
antagonistic. There are those on the one 
hand who say, “I am a scientific man and since 
the teachings of science and the teachings of 


42 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


historic faith do not harmonize, I will have no 
more to do with the ancient faith.” On the 
other hand are those who say, “I am true to 
the ancient faith; and since modern science 
and the ancient faith do not seem to agree, I 
will denounce without investigation all teach¬ 
ing that does not accord with m}' interpre¬ 
tations of the ancient faith.” Here is the 
great modern problem. All truth is from the 
mind of God, and it is futile to fight against 
God. 

But how do the findings of modern science 
harmonize with the ancient faith? How does 
Christianity itself meet the tests of scientific 
methods of study? Can we have religious 
leaders with the scientific spirit and scientists 
with the religious spirit? Can we raise up a 
leadership who will align the truths of Chris¬ 
tianity with those of scientific thought so as to 
give religion the vast advantage of the co¬ 
operation and support of modern scientific 
thinking ? 

Modern science has been applied to industry 
with amazing results. It has produced mar¬ 
velous inventions. It has made conquest of 
vast natural forces. One result has been the 
increase of manufacturing; and because of 
this great cities have arisen. Industry has 
become concentrated and has grown marvel¬ 
ously complex. 


GUIDEP08TS TO LIFE WORK 


43 


A result of the new conditions under which 
the majority of the people now live is new 
sociological problems. Wealth and poverty 
exist side by side. Millions for their daily 
bread are dependent upon human forces that 
they cannot control. Poverty, crime, human 
exploitation, disease—a thousand problems of 
human comfort and human relations—present 
themselves. Modern science applied to indus¬ 
try can make these problems, but without re¬ 
ligion it can never answer them. 

But if a leadership can be produced that 
can bring into one great force all that is 
true in science and religion, that leadership 
will bring all the achievements of the scientific 
age to the promotion of human good. Science 
will not be prostituted to the work of increas¬ 
ing the horrors of war. Christianity will ad¬ 
vance mightily in its program of establishing 
a brotherhood of man. 

It is clear that men who have a worthy part 
in such an epoch of readjustment must be big 
enough to appreciate all modern learning and 
must be securely established in the essentials 
of religion. 

Who is sufficient for leadership at such a 
time? God is saying, “Who will go for us? 
and whom shall we send?” What an oppor¬ 
tunity for Christian leadership in any calling! 
What a supreme opportunity in religious 
leadership! 

Do you dare to say “Here am I; send me”? 


Chapter IV 

DECISION AND VERIFICATION 

Decision should he deliberate. The great 
decisions of life ought not to be made hastily 
or without full consideration. Every factor 
bearing upon the decision ought to be given 
its proper consideration. Full time should be 
taken for a careful study of all the facts. 
Life’s great decisions should not be merely 
yielding to the sway of an emotional storm; 
such decisions usually amount to but little 
when the emotional storm has passed. 

On the other hand, promptness in decision 
is a habit of great importance. In the matter 
of obedience and loyalty to God it is impera¬ 
tive. Therefore in life work decision, whenever 
the path becomes clear, or to the extent that 
it does become clear, prompt decision is nec¬ 
essary. 

Deliberate decision does not mean delayed 
decision. It does mean decision that rests 
upon intelligent study. It means putting the 
will behind a plan that has approved itself to 
the intellect. 

Decision hours are usually definite. There 
are special occasions at which life’s great issues 
stand out with unusual clearness and demand 


GUIDE POSTS TO LIFE WORK 


45 


attention with unusual urgency. There are 
occasions of high privilege when people are 
lifted up as on some mount of vision and are 
able to see clearer and farther than at or¬ 
dinary times. In other days the camp meet¬ 
ings were such occasions for many people. In 
these days Epworth League institutes are such 
occasions. Multitudes of young people, turn¬ 
ing aside from their usual routine and attend¬ 
ing these institutes, find in them hours of far 
vision. In considering the great interests of 
the Kingdom, it is as though they walked 
amid the mountains of God and in the clearer 
atmosphere of high inspiration were able to 
see their own life plans more plainly. 

The greatest decisions of life should be 
made in our noblest moods, and then, having 
set the seal of our will upon them, we should 
compel ourselves to live up to their standard 
even if dull days should come. 

“Tasks in hours of insight willed 
Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.” 

—Matthew Arnold. 

If a man cannot decide rightly in the hours 
of exaltation, how can he do so in the days of 
weariness? If one cannot see the path of his 
life from the vantage ground of some moun¬ 
tain-top experience, how will he be able to see 
it from the lower levels of daily toil? The 
experience of the Transfiguration Mount only 


46 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


came once in the lives of Peter and James and 
John, but they never forgot it. 

Has God given you a Transfiguration- 
Mount experience? Have you ever felt that 
heaven was near and that God was speaking 
and that your own soul was triumphant over 
the material considerations that control so 
much of life? Have you come to some new 
appreciation of your own divine sonship and 
looked at life—your life—in its relations to 
eternity? Such experiences are golden hours 
for the registering of decisions and the setting 
of standards. 

Life work decisions should be tentative ,* 
they should be subject to revision in the light 
of any new indications of God's will . A com¬ 
mon error among young people is that of sup¬ 
posing that a life work decision is irrevocable 
even when found to have been unwisely made. 
One result of this error is that some young 
people fail to come to prompt decisions even 
when the path is plain. The step seems never 
capable of being reviewed. Their favorite 
text is that about putting one’s hand to the 
plow and looking backward, and so they do 
not use the plow at all. Another result of the 
error of considering life-decisions irrevocable 
is that some who have decided unwisely feel 
that they have signed their lives away and 
cannot reconsider. 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


47 


But all life work decisions should be held 
subject to reconsideration in event of new light 
coming. Your powers are expanding. What 
seemed most important yesterday with the 
pow T ers that developed may not be most im¬ 
portant to-morrow in the light of new talents 
found in the unfolding of your life. Or you 
may find limitations not knowm yesterday, and 
these may require a change of plan in loyalty 
to God. 

Then conditions change, and changing con¬ 
ditions sometimes bring new light. A young 
man thought that he ought to be a profes¬ 
sional violinist. In an accident he broke his 
arm and as a result his elbow became stiff. 
He became a missionary. Another young man 
wanted to be a missionary, but the death of 
his father left upon him the responsibility of 
caring for mother and the younger brothers 
and sisters, and necessitated a reconsideration 
of his life plans. 

Perhaps this is just another way of saying 
that life work decisions should be held subject 
to change in response to events that come in 
God’s providence. Indeed, one of the ways by 
which God guides us is by the doors that open 
and the doors that shut. A young man 
wanted to be a preacher, but for him that 
door closed, and a door opened by which he 
became an engineer. Afterward he was able 
to help two younger brothers prepare for the 


48 


GUIDEP0ST8 TO LIFE WORK 


ministry. By that plan God got two preach¬ 
ers instead of one. Abraham Lincoln set out 
to be a country storekeeper, but God closed 
that door and opened before him the doors of 
the White House. 

Set your heart upon the work by which 
your life would seem to accomplish most for 
God. Do not be too easily discouraged. But 
if the doors of opportunity close before you 
and another path of usefulness opens, do not 
hesitate to enter it. This is the usual method 
of providential guidance. 

Then life plans should be held subject to 
change in the testing of experience. If your 
try-out shows that you have not found the 
field in which your life can come to its best, 
do not hesitate to change. Why spoil your 
whole life over it? If you have become a min¬ 
ister and find that your work is not successful, 
but that you could be a successful evangelist, 
why not change? If you set out to be a 
teacher and find out by experience that you 
could do more good as a doctor, why not get 
into the new work as quickly as possible? A 
young man goes to India as a foreign mis¬ 
sionary. He wants to give his life to that 
wonderful land, but his health fails. Clearly 
his plans should be changed. 

Of course the changes to be made in the 
light of the test of usefulness ought to come 
early in the try-out of our life plans. The 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


49 


Methodist Church receives young men into the 
ministry on trial. The plan could be followed 
with advantage in many vocations. By care¬ 
fully appraising the try-out many of the 
tragic misfits could be avoided. 

A special word should be considered by 
young women. We have come to a day when 
many careers of opportunity are open to 
women, and now T here are women’s finer sensi¬ 
bilities a greater advantage than in religious 
work. Woman’s part in the advance of the 
Kingdom is one of the brightest chapters in 
the history of modern Christian achievement. 
And now as never before young women are 
deciding for fields of Christian service. But 
it should always be kept in mind that the most 
beautiful and most sacred calling is that of the 
home. To be queen in a Christian home is the 
highest calling of womanhood. Therefore, 
should one come into your life who is worthy 
of your life, all other plans properly may 
change in order that you may take up this 
holy work and establish another bit of heaven 
on earth by presiding in a Christian home. 

But maybe you didn’t need that bit of 
counsel; you’ll do it anyway. 


Chvpter V 

THE NEXT STEPS AFTER 
LIFE WORK DECISIONS 

Almost every worthy life work decision re¬ 
quires that readjustments be made if it is to 
be effective. The new purpose has to be 
fitted into the old circumstances and habits 
and plans. This cannot be done without 
changing them. But these readjustments are 
usually difficult. The steps that immediately 
follow the adoption of life work goals are 
therefore of the utmost importance. They in¬ 
volve sore trial for many young people. They 
are beset with discouragements. 

An understanding of these difficulties in 
advance of meeting them will help. It will be 
of advantage just to know where to turn for 
a friendly word of counsel when beset by the 
difficulties. This chapter is written to serve 
such purposes. It is placed here in the hope 
of reducing the deathrate of noble life- 
purposes. 

We have seen that it is wise to make life 
decisions in the hours of our loftiest spiritual 
experiences—that such decisions should be 
made when we are at our best. From the 
lookout of some mountain top of high spir- 
50 


GUIDEP08TS TO LIFE WORK 


51 


itual privilege it is easiest to get far visions 
and to gauge the direction which life should 
take. 

One of the first discouragements commonly 
following such decisions grows out of the 
fact that we cannot stay on the mountain 
heights. Periods of lofty exaltation are com¬ 
monly followed by reactions. Beyond the 
mountain there is a valley. Beyond the spir¬ 
itual exaltation frequently lies spiritual de¬ 
pression. People are so constructed that it is 
impossible for them to sustain an experience 
of exalted spiritual ecstasy. 

The decisions which looked so clear from 
the mountain top may look very different in 
the dull days, the monotonous days, and, it 
may be, the depressing days that follow. Then 
it is easy to question the reality of the vision 
and the decision. 

Peter probably said to James and John: 
“Did we really see him transfigured on the 
mountain? Did we really see Moses and Elijah 
from the other world? Did they really talk 
about Calvary and its meaning? Or was it 
all our dream? It seemed so easy there to 
accept the way of the cross. But somehow 
things look different now that the night of 
glory is gone and we face the hard facts of 
everyday life. I wonder whether it was just 
a dream.” At any rate, thousands of young 
people who have seen Christ glorified and have 


52 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


seen him beckoning to them at some Epworth 
League Institute or at some life-service con¬ 
ference pass through such a period of mis¬ 
giving. They go back home to everyday work; 
spiritual reaction comes. The vision seems far 
away and dreamlike. “After all now, was I 
warranted in making that decision? Wasn’t 
it a bit hasty at any rate?” This is a very 
common experience. 

But we have seen that the wise course in life 
is to set our standards in our lofty moments 
and then to hold ourselves to these standards 
when the inspiring hours are gone. Little 
progress is made as long as we continue the 
habit of fighting the same battles over and 
over. Do not let your scattered doubts gather 
and attack you again. In the hour when you 
are tempted to reconsider your decision, ask 
yourself whether you seem nearer to Christ 
than in the hour when you made the decision. 
Refuse to reconsider if you do not. God’s 
warriors will be as really brave and faithful 
on the lowlands as on the mountains. 

Another difficulty frequently met in this 
period is that of parental opposition. This is 
a real difficulty for some young people. Often, 
however, it is a difficulty only in the mind of a 
young person. 

A young man whose father was a business 
man of large interests and of some wealth 
came home from college. A great purpose 


GUI DEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


53 


was in his heart. But he hesitated to tell 
father and mother. He thought that God 
wanted him for the gospel ministry; but what 
would father say? Father had looked for¬ 
ward to the day when his big boy would share 
with him the business responsibilities. Then 
later the business affairs would pass into the 
hands of the son. This was the father’s plan. 
What would he say when he found that all 
this was to be changed? What would mother 
say when she found that his home was not to 
be beside their house but off at some distant 
church, perhaps very far away? His mind 
was greatly troubled. He knew his father’s 
plans; and he also knew his heavenly Father’s 
plans. And the two didn’t fit together. With 
a woman’s intuition mother saw that his mind 
was troubled. She asked the reason. 

“God wants my life for the ministry, and I 
must obey him.” 

“Have you settled it with him ?” 

“Yes.” 

Then a far-away look came to mother’s 
eyes, and maybe some proud glad tears, as she 
said, “I thank God.” And a quiet smile came 
over father’s face, for that father is a very 
practical man, and he said: “We have no 
plans that can stand before God’s plans. Boy, 
I’ll back you to the limit. You’ll start for 
theological school in September.” Instead of 


54 


GUIDEP0ST8 TO LIFE WORK 


the dreaded opposition he found inspiring 
help. It is usually so. 

A young woman gave her life to God for 
the foreign mission field. Her situation was 
most unusual. Her only sister had gone as a 
missionary and had contracted an illness from 
which she died. There was the unfinished 
work of her sister, and God was calling, and 
helpless needy ones over there were calling. 
She heard the calling and answered “Yes” to 
God. But at home was mother—just mother 
and herself, that was all. And mother had 
already sacrificed so much. Mother would be 
so lonely. There would be no one left to 
comfort her or to care for her. It was not too 
hard to make her own sacrifice; but how could 
she ask mother to sacrifice any more? And 
yet she must not be disobedient to the heavenly 
vision. She shrank from announcing her de¬ 
cision to mother. How mother would plead 
with heart-breaking objections. But she went 
straight to the task from which she shrank. 
She told mother all about it. To her surprise, 
mother had no objections at all. Mother’s 
face glowed with holy joy. Mother’s heart 
was full of thanks to God. Mother’s blessing 
was upon her. And watching angels caught 
the thrill for new hallelujahs. 

Yet there are those who will meet parental 
objection when noble life-decisions have been 
made. This fact creates a very great dif- 


GUIDE POSTS TO LIFE WORK 


55 


ficulty. What if it should be so with you? 
Of course we must obey God rather than man. 
But how shall such a situation be met? 

You must have patience. You must be 
kind. In quietness and sweetness and prayer 
you must demonstrate that your decision is a 
decision and not merely a passing impulse. 
As you do that, and as you go forward one 
step after another in working toward your 
life work, opposition will yield and your way 
will open before you. 

Still another embarrassment grows out of 
early companionships. A great life-decision 
has its bearings here. It may meet ridicule. 
It may be misunderstood. In its very nature 
it separates you from others. Those whose 
chief aim in life is pleasure will misjudge you 
because they cannot understand. Those who 
themselves are controlled by selfish purposes 
can scarcely believe that your chief motives 
are loyalty and service. To them it looks 
foolish. They may bluntly say so. There 
have always been those to whom the gospel of 
Christ was foolishness. 

The acceptance of any divine call marks the 
beginning of a life apart from others. True, 
it means holier friendships with the few and 
holier associations with Jesus; but it means 
separation from the crowd. Sometimes it 
means learning to w r alk alone with God. Very 
w r ell, let it mean that for you if necessary. 


56 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORE 


All the difficulties of readjustment attend¬ 
ing dedication to worthy life work can be met 
successfully if attention is given to a few 
clear facts. In addition to what has already 
been suggested and yet involved in it are two 
advices worthy of specific mention. 

Keep strengthening your own soul-life. 
Your safety is not in your ability to dodge 
difficulties but in having the strength to meet 
your difficulties and overcome them. There¬ 
fore nurture your soul to abounding strength 
through devotional habits. You feed your 
body three times a day; why let your soul 
starve? You have established habits of feed¬ 
ing your body; why not be equally regular in 
habits of feeding your soul? Of course you 
will lose the sound of God’s call to you if you 
let a thousand clamoring voices of earth come 
between you and him. Feed on the Word of 
God. Practice a life of prayer. Know the 
great hymns of the church. Observe all the 
“means of grace.” Get into the work of God 
right where you are, and exercise your spir¬ 
itual muscles till you can say, <4 I can do all 
things through Christ who strengthened me.” 

The second special advice is that you guard 
against being turned aside into any bypath. 

When Christ steadfastly set his face to go 
up to Jerusalem there was much that he had 
to leave behind. Behind him were Galilee and 
the scenes of his childhood. There he had 


GUIDEP08T8 TO LIFE WORK 


57 


played among the lilies of the field. There 
he had observed the sparrow’s fall. Behind 
him were his mother and his brethren. Be¬ 
hind him were the places of his greatest 
popularity. But he had steadfastly set his 
face to go up to Jerusalem. 

Then this great purpose necessitated that 
many things be passed by as he moved to the 
goal of his life. 

“Master, here is Samaria and Jacob’s well. 
What would be the harm of turning aside?” 

“These are not on the path that leads to my 
life-goal.” 

“Master, here are the splashing, laughing 
waters of Jordan that have come from your 
own loved Galilee. Couldn’t we turn aside to 
listen to the singing of the waters? Where 
would be the harm in that?” 

“Behold, I go to Jerusalem. Nothing shall 
turn me aside one step.” 

How many things are left aside and passed 
by when one steadfastly sets his face to go to 
his life-goal! How many questions take care 
of themselves! Doubtful indulgences, even 
when innocent bypaths are spurned. He 
doesn’t even have to argue whether some 
things are wrong in themselves; he has no 
use for them and no time for them if they do 
not help him reach his goal. 

How much Jerusalem meant to the Master! 
There is a real sense in which he had always 


58 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


been going directly toward it. On the map of 
Palestine his journeys seem to zigzag; but on 
the map of God’s will it shows one straight 
march to the goal. 

“But, Master, at Jerusalem is a garden of 
sorrows, and Pilate’s hall, and Golgotha, and 
a cross! Do you see what Jerusalem means?” 

“Yes, I see all that, but I also see an altar 
for the sins of the world, and a light for all 
the coming ages, and an everlasting redemp¬ 
tion. I go to the cross. I go to the cross.” 

What if he had failed to go to Jerusalem 
for us? Yes, and what if we should fail to 
reach the goal of our life for him ? 


Chapter VI 

WORKING TOWARD YOUR 
LIFE WORK 

Whether you see clearly the life work 
which should be yours or not, it is safe to say 
that you will be moving In the direction of it 
if you are careful to take up the duty that is 
nearest to }^ou. A very common danger is 
that of indulging in high purposes that are 
all to be fulfilled at some distant date, and 
then permitting to-day’s duties to pass by un¬ 
noticed. That attitude almost always means 
death to the high purpose. 

On some occasion of high privilege a young 
man decides that his life ought to be given 
to the Christian ministry. But his purpose 
is for the far future. He knows that he must 
secure a proper education for this work. He 
is aware that a call to any life work is first of 
all a call to get ready for that life work. But 
he delays. He tells himself that he can’t go 
to college just now. He hasn’t the money. 
Oh, yes, he knows that others have found a 
way or made it, but he puts the matter off. 
He knows that his pastor has books that would 
be helpful and that he could borrow. He 
could be making progress toward his goal 
59 


60 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


every day, but he doesn’t get to it. He neg¬ 
lects the opportunity to study. 

Then, there are so many opportunities for 
moving toward his goal in Christian service. 
Someone ought to organize the Boy Scouts in 
his community. The Epworth League needs 
the help he could give. There is work to be 
done in the Sunday school. There are oppor¬ 
tunities all about him if he will only open his 
eyes and see. But he just lets them pass by 
while he cherishes his hopes of great things to 
be done in some uncertain future, instead of 
devoting himself to them with the same spirit 
which he hopes to put into future efforts. If 
he were to serve God in the present even in 
small opportunities, he would* find himself 
moving toward his great goal. Through 
faithfulness in that which i9 least he would 
come to mastery over great things; but by 
neglect of the duties of the present the fine 
aspirations for the future fade away. 

When Martin Luther set himself to the task 
of translating the Bible he was beset by a 
multitude of other tasks. He succeeded, how¬ 
ever, because he adopted as his plan, “No day 
without a verfce,” and that kept him at the 
great task of translation. Some step toward 
the goal every day is the only safe plan for 
reaching the best in any life. 

Perhaps a young man decides that he can 
serve best as a Christiaif business man. Here, 


GUIDE POSTS TO LIFE WORK 


61 


again, he knows that if God plans this for his 
life, he ought to get ready. He knows that 
for real leadership in business life he must 
have a thorough education. He expects to go 
to college and get ready, but he puts off the 
starting. He knows that he could easily be 
learning something every day, but it is such a 
bother. He is earning some money. He could 
save a little, but he spends it all. He doesn’t 
know that the biggest dime in the world 
is the dime that measures the difference be¬ 
tween five cents a day more than a man 
earns and five cents a day less than he earns. 
If he knew the value of that dime, he would 
at least be making some progress toward his 
goal. Then later he would progress faster, 
and after awhile he would arrive. But be¬ 
cause he stands still while time does not, the 
young man never arrives. 

Or it may be that he gives attention only 
to the material side of his goal. He knows 
that if God wants him to be a business man, 
he ought to be a Christian business man. He 
thinks of the honesty and good will that he 
will employ in that future work; he thinks of 
the liberality that he will show with his earn¬ 
ings when he comes to his goal. Now perhaps 
he begins the material preparation. He care¬ 
fully saves a good part of his earnings. He 
studies business methods. He is completing 
high school. But wdiile he dreams of the good 


G2 


0U1DEP0STS TO LIFE WORK 


that he will do some day he lets to-day drift 
away. He has just as many opportunities to 
render helpful service as the fellow looking 
toward the ministry, but he lets them pass by. 
Every time he turns away from a chance to 
do good something happens to his finer 
self. The best that is in him starves. His 
holy dreams fade. If he ever comes to busi¬ 
ness power, it will be to a power that will be 
no more than the empty shell of what it might 
have been. 

The only sure plan of realizing high am¬ 
bitions is to make some advance toward them 
every day. Ambitions grow strong as we feed 
them. The progress made to-day makes to¬ 
morrow’s progress easier. 

If you have found what you believe to be 
God’s plan for your life, or if you are sin¬ 
cerely seeking it, one of the first things to do 
is to go to work at once for God. Find some¬ 
thing to do for him now . If you can only see 
the way to go forward a few steps, take those 
steps and expect the way to open as you ad¬ 
vance. It is easy to guide the ship that is 
under full head of steam, but no man can 
guide the ship that is drifting. It is easy for 
God to guide you when you are doing your 
best; but even God can’t guide the person who 
isn’t going anywhere. 

Second only in importance to the duty of 
finding work to do for God at once is the 


GUJDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


63 


duty of beginning to prepare for your life- 
task at once. By this as well as by Christian 
service some gain should be made every day. 
If you are in high school or college, you are 
making some gain in your preparation every 
day. If you are not in school, you have access 
to good books. You have friends who would 
very gladly advise you as to how to go for¬ 
ward. Do the thing that you can do now. 
Don’t worry about what you cannot do, and 
be sure that you do not let it prevent you 
from making to-day’s progress. 

There is good psychology in the old Negro 
melody, “Keep Inchin’ Along.” It is easy for 
the fellow to be side-tracked who is not doing 
much of anything now but just waiting to do 
some great thing some day; but it is very hard 
to stop the person who has set his heart on 
making some gain toward his goal each day. 

“Moment by moment 

Let down from heaven, 

Time, opportunity, 

Guidance are given. 

Fear not tomorrow, 

Child of the King; 

Trust it with Jesus, 

Do the next thing.”* 

Or, as another of our poets has said: 

“If God thou fearest, 

Rise up and do, thy whole life through. 

The duty that lies nearest.”* 

*Quoted from Poems with Power to Strengthen the 
Soul —Mudge; published by the Methodist Book 
Concern. 


Chapter VII 

IF DISAPPOINTMENTS COME 

Of the total number of young people who 
sincerely dedicate themselves to Christ for 
full-time religious life-service a large propor¬ 
tion fail to work out their own high purposes. 
Because of this fact some young people have 
hesitated to make worthy decisions, fearing 
that they too may fail. Others, reflecting 
upon the matter, question the wisdom or the 
sincerity of the unrealized decisions. Both of 
these positions are unwarranted. 

A large number of the failures are due to 
the loss of high purposes in ways made clear 
elsewhere in this little book. The way to pre¬ 
vent such failure has already been explained. 

But a considerable number of persons who 
enlist for definite forms of spiritual service 
find their way blocked by facts beyond their 
control. Such young people face the danger 
of serious disappointment. 

A young woman of beautiful and self-for¬ 
getful spirit had given herself wholly to Christ 
and had set her heart upon going as a mis¬ 
sionary to Java. She knew a returned mis¬ 
sionary from that tropical island. From this 
friend she got all the information she could 
64 


GU1DEP0STS TO LIFE WORK 


65 


get. She read all about Java. For a half 
dozen years she studied and thought and 
dreamed about Java. There her life would be 
spent for Jesus in service of benighted people 
for whom he died. Her college work was pro¬ 
gressing nicely. Her heart was full of peace 
and holy joy as she went forward. All went 
well in her plans until she had an interview 
with a representative of the foreign mission¬ 
ary board. Then the startling fact came out 
that she could never be sent to Java. Her 
eyes were somewhat impaired. The glare of 
the tropical sun would have made her wholly 
blind. No missionary board would think of 
sending her to Java. 

Only the finest type of young people will 
understand the bitterness of her disappoint¬ 
ment. She will never see the luxuriant tropic 
beauty of her beloved Java. She will never 
have the privilege of bearing the hardships 
and meeting the lurking dangers for Jesus. 
Only in her dreams will she hear the haunting 
call of Java’s lost ones to whom she hoped 
to minister. 

Another young woman dedicated her life to 
missionary work in India. She studied India 
and talked India and prayed India all through 
her college course. When her preparation 
was complete she was accepted by the Woman’s 
Foreign Missionary Society and sent to India. 
Within a short time her health broke. She 


66 


GUIDEP08TS TO LIFE WORK 


was sent into the mountains to recuperate. 
Later she tried to resume her work, but very 
soon her health began to fail again. It be¬ 
came apparent that she could not live in India. 
She had to forego her noble ambition and 
return to America. 

A young man dedicated himself to the work 
of the Christian ministry. For years he 
dreamed of this holy work. He would baptize 
cooing infants in the name of the Babe of 
Bethlehem. He would guide the feet of child¬ 
hood into the King’s highway. He would 
unite fond lovers in holy marriage. He would 
bring the cheer and strength of the skies to 
toiling manhood and womanhood. He would 
comfort the sorrowing with hopes reaching 
into eternity. The aged should lean on his 
arm as they walked into the valley and shadow 
of death. He would be a faithful minister of 
the gospel of Christ. 

All this was his dream and his plan and his 
purpose. He knew that he must get ready. He 
must go through high school and college. But 
father was dead, and he as the oldest boy was 
responsible for mother and the younger chil¬ 
dren. That responsibility drove him to work 
with all his strength. He saw other boys pass 
through the high school as one year after 
another held him to his toiling. He saw some of 
them go through college. Slowly the cold truth 
forced itself upon him that the days of prep- 


GUIDEPOSTS 2J0 LIFE WORK 


67 


aration were gone and that it was too late. 
The golden dream could never be anything 
more than a dream. 

These cases are not isolated; they are typ¬ 
ical and could be indefinitely multiplied by 
anyone who is interested in helping young 
folks find their life work. Many young peo¬ 
ple who have held fast to holy ambitions have 
come to know bitter disappointment. What 
should be the attitude if disappointments 
come? 

First, let such a person remember that his 
dedication fundamentally was a dedication to 
the will of God. It was a dedication to Christ 
much more thatf a dedication to some chosen 
field of service. It was a dedication to some 
definite field of service only because this seemed 
to include the will of God for his life. If 
further light should show that his will is to 
be fulfilled in some other field, loyalty to the 
consecration should lead to change of plans 
and to equal faithfulness wherever he may 
lead. 

We do not say that we should never feel 
disappointed. There was disappointment in 
the tears of Jesus as he wept over Jerusalem. 
One who dares to hold vast plans for service 
runs the risk of meeting vast failures. But 
that is no argument against worth-while pur¬ 
poses in life. If our lives are hid with Christ 
in God, whatever failures may come and what- 


68 


OUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


ever disappointments, whatever new paths our 
lives may take, we will find that our work is an 
effective part of the divine plan of lifting the 
children of earth up into the estate of the 
sons of God. 

Disappointments are like the ancient symbol 
of God’s presence. They are a pillar of cloud 
and darkness to Egyptians but a pillar of fire 
and light to children of God. Disappoint¬ 
ments seen from the wrong side bring dark¬ 
ness and confusion. But rightly viewed they 
light new paths. And all the enthusiasm and 
devotion and loyalty of our earlier purposes 
should go with us into the new paths. We 
should thank God that we saw some vision 
splendid and that our wills responded loyally 
to it; for, even if the plans of life must 
change, the glory of the high purposes which 
held our hearts wiU leave us something of 
beauty and worth. If we have dreamed high 
dreams and tried to keep step with God, it 
never has been a vain and empty experience. 
On the contrary, there is very great value in 
unrealized ambitions. 

David wanted to build the temple at Jeru¬ 
salem. God told him that he could not do 
this. But God also told him that he did well 
to have it in his heart to build the temple. 
Having the great purpose in his heart meant 
disappointment; but it meant much more. 


OUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


G9 


Dreams and struggles make life worth 
while; yes, even give it a worth that brings 
pleasure to God. 

Once a certain minister had a flower garden. 
He did not know much about pansies, but a 
florist told him that when the plants put forth 
their beautiful flowers they are trying to make 
seed; and that when the flow r er makes seed, its 
work is done and it ceases to bloom. Almost 
every day after that the minister went to the 
pansy bed and talked to the plants as he cut 
off their flowers. He would say: “Little pan¬ 
sies, you are not to realize your purpose this 
time. I know you want to make seed; but 
your effort, your flower, brings pleasure to 
me. I am sorry to disappoint you; but try 
again. You can do better I know.” Then 
the pansies tried again and again. They put 
forth great beautiful flowers that were the 
wonder of the neighbors. They grew greater 
and more beautiful by their efforts to over¬ 
come their disappointments. All the long sum¬ 
mer they bloomed and brought joy to the 
heart of their master. And all of this is a 
parable if you want to think it through. 

We were considering David’s great ambi¬ 
tion and his great disappointment. We need 
to remember that, while David did not realize 
his great ambition, because of it he did realize 
vastly more important things. It was his 
Temple dream that inspired him to write 


70 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


psalms. They were for use in that Temple. 
He did not get to build the Temple; but he 
wrote the Temple songs, and a single one of 
them surpasses the worth of any Temple that 
this world ever saw. “The Lord is my shep¬ 
herd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie 
down in green pasture. He leadeth me beside 
the still water. He restoreth my soul.” This 
shepherd psalm has come down through the 
centuries like a ministering angel, charming 
care from the weary hearts of men. It has run 
out to the ends of the world. It will be sung 
while time lasts. Perhaps in the eternal world 
we shall still sing “The Lord is my shepherd.” 
David, you didn’t build the Temple but you 
did a vastly greater thing. 

What we are saying is just this. When 
folks hold fast to holy ambitions even in spite 
of disappointments, they get done the best 
things their lives are capable of accomplish¬ 
ing ; and frequently God’s realizations through 
our lives are bigger than our dreams. 

“So do I gather strength and hope anew; 

For well I know thy patient love perceives 
Not what I did, but what I strove to do, 

And though the full ripe ears be sadly few 
Thou wilt accept my sheaves.” 

—Elizabeth Akers. 


Chapter VIII 

VOCATIONS AND AVOCATIONS 

Your vocation is your calling. It is your 
life work in the sense in which we have been 
using that expression. Your avocation is a 
kind of secondary calling. It is your chief 
life interest apart from your vocation. Wil¬ 
liam Smith is a business man; that is his voca¬ 
tion. But he is superintendent of his Sunday 
school; he gives a vast amount of thought 
and time to this work; its claim upon his 
time is second only to that of his life work. 
It is his avocation. Mrs. Balch is a home- 
keeper ; that is her vocation; and if you want 
to know how well she does it, you ought to be 
a guest at her home. But Mrs. Balch is presi¬ 
dent of the Ladies’ Aid Society; that is her 
avocation, and she takes into this work her 
usual enthusiasm and efficiency. When you 
talk to her, you find her as really interested in 
her avocation as in her vocation. Naturally, 
Mr. Balch may think her vocation more im¬ 
portant; but the pastor of her church can 
hardly see how her vocation can be more im¬ 
portant than her avocation. 

Your avocation is the work in which you are 
chiefly interested apart from the occupation 
71 


72 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


by which you earn your support. Now, closely 
related to the vastly important matter of find¬ 
ing God’s will for your vocation, is that of 
finding his will for your avocation, for his 
will includes your whole life. 

Avocation sometimes molds and colors a 
life even more than vocation. The hours spent 
at the bench or at the desk or elsewhere in the 
daily toil become a routine. Sometimes they 
seem to be directed by necessity. The hours 
spent in our avocation are purely voluntary; 
they represent the investment of our leisure. 
They therefore more freely represent us. And 
just because they sometimes afford fuller op¬ 
portunity for self-expression, they sometimes 
have the larger influence in the enrichment of 
our own lives. One writer, observing this fact, 
has said, “Tell me what you do when you have 
nothing to do, and I will tell you what you 
are.” He was correct, and it would be still 
easier to tell what we will be in soul-worth 
to-morrow on the basis of our use of leisure 
to-day. 

When the strain of toil relaxes, which way 
does your mind turn? Jack Wilson is a car¬ 
penter ; that is his trade. But he “follows the 
ponies”; that is his hobby. He has a day off. 
He spends it at the races. He has an hour 
off. He reads the race-track news. Sunday 
comes but he doesn’t think of church. He 
spends it figuring out how to pick the win- 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


7 3 


ners. Now you know just how big a man 
Jack is—or how little a man; and you know 
what his spiritual measurements are likely to 
be in the future. 

Beside Jack in the carpenter shop works 
Andy Scott. Andy has his hobby too. It is 
the church music. We may call that an avoca¬ 
tion. He is the life of the choir in the little 
church. He sees that others don’t forget. 
He himself is always at choir practice. He is 
familiar with the great hymns of the church. 
He has a day off. He spends it trying to 
select anthems really great and yet within the 
range of the ability of the volunteer choir. If 
his work at the bench is not crowding his 
mind, he is humming some sacred strain. Now 
you know what kind of a man Andy Scott is, 
for you know his avocation. You know that 
his children will run to meet him when he 
comes home. You know that his dog isn’t 
afraid of him. You know that people are 
sure with affection to call him “Uncle Andy.” 
You know that his friends honor him. The 
minister preaches better when “Mr. Andrew 
Scott” leads the singing. He reminds people 
of that other singing Carpenter, the one who 
sang a hymn before going out to die on a 
cross. 

It frequently happens that a man’s avoca¬ 
tion counts more for human welfare than his 
vocation. The occupation or profession of 


74 


OUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


some men is mainly the means of earning a 
livelihood, while the avocation represents the 
noblest self-expression in service for God. A 
shoemaker once said that his business was to 
serve God and that he mended shoes in order 
to pay expenses, Paul was a tent-maker by 
trade. He became an apostle by avocation. It 
may be that the writing of his letters was 
but a secondary matter in his thought. But 
certainly in uplift for the world his letter¬ 
writing was infinitely more important than his 
tent-making. John Bunyan was a preacher 
of the gospel. But they locked him up in 
Bedford jail. He had to keep his mind occu¬ 
pied. He wrote Pilgrim’s Progress. He 
doubted whether it would amount to much 
in help for others; the writing was an avoca¬ 
tion. But the verdict of the world is that it 
far outranks the worth of his preaching min¬ 
istry. 

Speaking in college terms, we may think of 
our vocation as our major and our avocation 
as our first minor in the school of life. But 
Christ is to be the Lord and Master of all 
our life. Well, then, every argument that 
urges us to find God’s will for our life as to 
its major will apply with equal force when 
we think of our minors. 

If you come to see that God wants your 
life for some full-time religious life-service, 
you will, of course, select a minor in keeping 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


75 


with your major. Your minor may be liter¬ 
ature, or science, or flowers, or music—any 
wholesome hobby. But have a hobby. It 
should be enough different from your usual 
work to give you mental rest, and yet it should 
be related to your major. But if your major 
work of life is in the religious field, your 
minor almost certainly will adjust itself. 

Much more, however, must be said if your 
major service is not in the religious field. If 
your prayerful consideration should lead you 
to the conclusion that God wants you to be a 
banker or a doctor or a school-teacher, or 
something else not definitely in the field of 
spiritual ministries, then it is of the utmost 
importance that you select as your avocation 
some interest that offers full opportunity for 
the exercise of your spiritual powers, and that 
offers also full opportunity for spiritual serv¬ 
ice for others. We have seen how such ex¬ 
ercise of spiritual powers colors and glorifies 
life, and we have seen how vastly important 
such services for others can be. 

Now t , the great center for such avocational 
opportunities is the local church. Some op¬ 
portunities are afforded by independent char¬ 
ities, Y.M.C.A., Y.W.C.A., and other organ¬ 
izations. Some people give a large share of 
their leisure time to purely personal unorgan¬ 
ized service for others. It is almost impos¬ 
sible to continue the unorganized individual 


76 


OUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


efforts Indefinitely. The single strand of 
thread that stands aloof from the other strands 
and tries to lift alone cannot accomplish much. 
Its influence is easily broken. But when it 
weaves itself with a hundred other strands it 
forms a rope that can lift a ton. Its strength 
is in organization. Life is like that. Individ¬ 
ual effort is weak, while organized effort is 
mighty. Your efforts for helpfulness can be 
strengthened a hundredfold if organized in 
the Church of God. No other organization 
offers so wide a range of inviting opportunities 
for investment in service, and nowhere else 
will efforts accomplish so much. 

Here is the Sunday school, the world’s 
greatest opportunity for volunteer religious 
teaching. Here is the Epworth League—no 
greater opportunity in the world for the train¬ 
ing of religious leadership. Here is the 
Official Board, and the Ladies’ Aid Society, 
and the Woman’s Home Missionary and the 
Woman’s Foreign Missionary Societies, and a 
dozen other great organizations. Here a hun¬ 
dred great interests are focused—Christian 
education, Christian stewardship, evangelism, 
homes for our aged, the care of our veteran 
ministers, our deaconesses in their ministry to 
the lost, our hospitals in their service of heal¬ 
ing for the poor. All these and scores of 
other interests center at your own local church. 


OUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


77 


You can invest your leisure time in any one 
of these. Learn all you can about it. Pro¬ 
mote it in your own church. Serve men 
through it. Serve God through it. You can 
make your efforts mighty for good. You will 
share your church’s world fellowship in serv¬ 
ice. Your life will be lifted to the dignity of 
divine sonship and glorified if you find your 
avocation centering in the house of God. 

We have seen that it is not God’s w ill that 
all lives be devoted to ministry as a vocation. 
God needs Christian business men and Chris¬ 
tian lawyers and Christian home-makers and 
all the rest. God does not ask all to follow a 
religious vocation. But, surely, God does want 
all his children to help him establish the King¬ 
dom of Righteousness in the world. If your 
vocation is not to be in the religious field, 
surely your avocation ought to be. 

Your little local church reaches outward to 
the ends of the earth in its influence. Oh, yes, 
it does. And it reaches down as far as the 
depths of sin. It reaches onward into eternity 
in its results because it reaches upward to the 
throne of God for its inspiration, and back¬ 
ward to a cross for its power. If you want 
to help God set up a Kingdom of Righteous¬ 
ness on earth, the best place for you to invest 
your efforts is in the Church of God. 


Chapter IX 

FITTING INTO GOD’S WORLD PLANS 

If God has a plan for our lives, he must 
have a world plan into which these individual 
plans will fit. Some understanding of his 
world plans is necessary in order that we may 
have the zeal and enthusiasm that will make 
the plans for our individual lives really ef¬ 
fective. 

A great stone church was in process of 
erection. The architect had enlisted the serv¬ 
ices of an artist and a beautiful painting was 
made which showed the temple as it would 
appear when completed. The workmen who 
were doing the excavating were taken before 
this beautiful painting. They were told that 
they were not merely digging dirt; they were 
erecting a temple for God. 

Later the masons began their work. Each 
man was doing the part assigned to him. The 
hod-carriers were carrying the stone and mor- 
(tar. But if each had worked alone, this work 
might easily have become a burden. Again 
and again these men were permitted to step 
into the chapel and view the temple they were 
building in order that each might see how his 
part fitted into the whole beautiful plan. 

78 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


79 


Then the carpenters came. The building 
took form. But some were working on the 
obscure parts while others erected the great 
timbers that supported the roof. Each found 
pleasure in the knowledge that he was contrib¬ 
uting to the success of the whole plan. 

Probably every man who worked in the 
building of that great church did better work 
because he could see what the whole plan was. 
Certainly, every man worked with greater 
pleasure and satisfaction. 

It makes a very great difference whether 
a man is working eight hours a day for so 
much money or is working for the erecting of 
a beautiful temple for God. The one work is 
drudgery, the other is glorious. Yet the dif¬ 
ference is not in the work but in the knowledge 
brought to the work. 

In a former chapter in discussing the cir¬ 
cumstances amid which our lives are set a very 
brief sketch was given of the problem of the 
new adjustment of Christianity and the new 
scientific learning. A review of those facts 
will throw a flood of light upon the world 
program of God’s kingdom. 

Attention is now called to the fact that new 
inventions and discoveries are making the 
world continually grow smaller. One hun¬ 
dred years ago New York and Philadelphia 
were two days apart by the fastest means of 
transportation; and because the stage made 


80 


GUIDEPOST8 TO LIFE WORK 


that run of ninety miles in two days it was 
called the flying machine. Now the two cities 
are only two hours apart by railroad train 
or less than one hour by aeroplane. 

One hundred years ago the court gossip of 
Europe was published in America three 
months after the events, and that was called 
news. The battle of New Orleans was fought 
after peace had been declared because there 
was no way to get the news that the war was 
over. Now we get all the important news of 
all the world every twenty-four hours. Now 
we listen in on musical concerts given in dis¬ 
tant cities, and the ends of the earth are in 
the same little neighborhood. In fact, our 
world has become so close a neighborhood that 
we are compelled to learn to live together in 
the brotherhood of Christ or face ruin. A 
neighborhood world filled with hate and sin 
means world suicide. It is Christ or ruin for 
civilization now. Think it through. 

But the world-neighborhood is the amazing 
opportunity of the ages for an aggressive 
and consecrated church. Here is the world 
opportunity. Whether your work be that of 
the teacher, or the preacher, or the doctor, or 
the missionary, or the Christian business man, 
or whatever it may be, and however consci¬ 
entious and faithful you may be in it, it will 
take on a new dignity in your own eyes and 
you will find new joy in it if you can see it 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


81 


as a part of God’s great comprehensive plans 
for the world. It is, therefore, of the utmost 
importance that you cultivate world vision. 

World vision not only shows us how cur own 
task fits into the temple of redeemed humanity, 
but it shows us how the tasks of others fit 
also, and therefore it shows us a new dignity 
in their toiling. In the erecting of the church 
referred to above the masons might have 
looked down upon the excavators. They were 
all grimed with dirt. Or the carpenters might 
have despised the work of the masons. But 
as they all looked repeatedly upon the picture 
of the completed structure, each saw how his 
own work was made perfect in the toil of his 
neighbor, and each saw the dignity of the 
other’s toil. They were all workers together 
for God. 

So in God’s larger temple, world vision not 
only glorifies your own toil but shows the 
glory of the toil of others too. And out of 
this comes a feeling of comradeship and 
brotherhood toward all who are trying to es¬ 
tablish good in the world. Such world-fellow¬ 
ships make for larger manhood and for more 
joyful and effective service. 

Any effort to comprehend God’s world plans 
in the present era must immediately lead to 
the understanding that the whole world is in 
his plan, and that now as possibly never be¬ 
fore no man liveth unto himself and no nation 


82 


GUIDEPOSTS TO LIFE WORK 


liveth unto itself. The barriers of hate and of 
national selfishness are being broken down. 
The effort to keep them up and to extend 
them almost wrecked civilization in the World 
War, and some of the shortsighted statesmen 
of the world find it hard to understand that 
progress for humanity by advance of conflict¬ 
ing national units is no longer possible. 

The new age has drawn the world together 
and united it by so many ties that when one 
nation suffers the whole world feels the result. 
When one nation takes a backward step the 
advance of all humanity is retarded. In such 
an age the study of God’s world-plans univer¬ 
salizes us, giving us the consciousness of being 
world citizens. That does not mean that we 
love our own land less, but it does mean that 
we come to have larger appreciation and sym¬ 
pathy of people of all other lands. 

This consciousness of world fellowship is 
taking hold of hearts of the youth of all lands. 
The danger of future war is not in the atti¬ 
tude of the youth of the nations; it belongs to 
the generation that is passing away. The 
youth of many lands are united in beautiful 
expressions of friendship in our Epworth 
Leagues. The students of America are aiding 
the students of the stricken countries of 
Europe through the World Student Friend¬ 
ship Fund. The youth of the world are unit¬ 
ing for the prevention of future wars. 


GUIDEP0ST8 TO LIFE WORK 


83 


Wherever the local church may be located 
its boundaries will never again be township 
boundaries. For every modern preacher there 
is new meaning in Wesley’s words, “The world 
is my parish.” That is no longer a visionary 
possibility; it is an actual necessity, and the 
churches that are drying up and dying are 
those that are failing to appreciate their 
world-wide connections. The churches that 
are vigorous and triumphant are those that 
look upon God’s whole great plan and see how 
their own faithfulness fits into it. 

So with the individual member, whatever 
his life work may be, the full measure of his 
privileges and responsibilities requires that he 
keep himself informed of the progress of the 
kingdom of God in the world; and he can 
hardly hope to be broad enough in his sym¬ 
pathies to fulfill God’s whole plan for his own 
life unless he keeps in open vision God’s larger 
plans that are unfolding in the world. 

In the new day of fuller realization of world 
fellowship the Christian business man will not 
count his earnings in the dollars he keeps so 
much as in those he invests for the building 
of the new civilization. Then the teacher, the 
doctor, the preacher, everyone having found 
the plan of God for his life, will find his life 
work glorified as he sees it forming a part of 
the world-inclusive plans of the Christ. 


84 . 


GU1DEP0STS TO LIFE WORK 


A Prayer . 

O God, help me to see thy plan for my life, 
and to this end purify my heart and mind 
that in the clear air of purity I may see a 
plain path before me. Fill my heart with the 
Holy Spirit, that my will may be turned to 
ready obedience to thy call. Make me big 
enough to appreciate and enter into the 
world-plans of Jesus. Make me good enough 
to further those plans by all the issues of my 
life. May no littleness or narrowness or blind¬ 
ness in me make it impossible for my life to 
measure up to thy plan. In the consciousness 
that I am a son of God, and with the exhil¬ 
aration of having a part in the building of a 
redeemed world, may I be a workman that 
needeth not to be ashamed. Amen. 


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